25.4.09

quarter life crisis and stalled, not even arrested development

there has been quarks of coming-of-a-decade sorts around monkey. lots of engagement, lots of babies, lots of wedding news from afar, lots of relocation, graduation, buying houses etc etc. made realize hey that's right we are bout to hit that 30 mark. you know now they have a term called a quarter life crisis. oh so optimistically (in my case perhaps with dread) thinking that we may live up to ave 100 years (that used to be a special unit called a century i believe)- however, the quarter life crisis thing is a fact i think. no one knows what to do. we were sooo drilled into going to school, getting grades, diplomas etc., one-track-minded. if you were lucky, may be you diversified a bit by getting a job or something. but still, by age 25, most of kids that i know were just really barely out of school if not still in school (i was!).

then with baby boomers not willing to let it go (i guess they did pay for our generation's slackering attitude by providing more and more), the market's saturated with seniority members and in conjunction to their complaint about the generation y:that we dont work hard, dont care, wants praises and encouragement all the time blah blah. well, moms and dads, dont you think you guys have something to do about how your children turned out?? i guess not.

Generation Y is sometimes called the "Trophy Generation", or "Trophy Kids,"[7] a term that reflects the trend in competitive sports (as well as many other aspects of life) where "no one loses" and everyone gets a "Thanks for Participating" trophy.Alsop, Ron (October 13, 2008). The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace. Jossey-Bass

in anycase, with labour market situation as it is (and getting worse) and parents taking care of most things and providing extra, many of my generations (perhaps also including me) have been spoiled rotten (according to the boomers), many of us were slammed with this quarter life crisis thing. i know i was, though mine came a wee bit later because i managed to stay in school as long as i can without failing or repeating something (that wouldve been too hard on this trophy kid's ego).

and now as a member of first digitals (yep we are also know as the first digitals, funny how these terms and lingos develop themselves, a new kind of ethmology) now im blabbing about it. here are some amusing statistics from: Junco, Reynol and Mastrodicasa, Jeanna M. "Connecting to the Net.Generation: What higher education professionals need to know about today's students" (2007)

Instant Messaging (IM)76% of students used Instant Messaging A typical IM user was logged on to IM 35 hours each week. 15% of IM users were logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week. IM users typically chat 80 minutes per day. 80% of IM users send messages to someone in their vicinity.

Multitasking and Academics92% of IM users reported doing something else on the computer while IMing. 75% of IM users reported doing something else while IMing. 75% of IM users reported doing schoolwork while IMing. 57% of IM users reported that their academics had suffered because of IM use. 40% of students reported that their academics had suffered because of surfing the web and 16% reported their academics had suffered because of playing games.

Information Streaming40% of students reported that the television was their primary source of obtaining news while 34% reported that websites were their primary source (newspapers were the primary source for 11% and radio for 8%).

Facebook69% of students reported having a Facebook account. Students who had Facebook accounts reported typically logging in twice a day.

in any case, with all these traits built into us (or affluenced by them at least, no one lives in a bubble unless you have a vacant head), most of my friends who decided to go more conventional route (getting a somewhat permanent job in mid 20s, starting to settle down and all that jazz) are now mostly married or in relationships, often with babies, pets, cars, mortgages that kind thing. those who stayed a bit longer in schools are now catching up it seems, from stream of news of engagements, marriages, wedding cake fiascos (it's just bloody cake. butter, flour, sugar, icing, and it costs how much? bah... crazy. i have nothing against a good looking cake, i just cant imagine forking over 200 bucks for a cake! and that 200 bucks cake better feed a plenty!). or even just simple things like getting a place, a dog whatever.

as someone who is not doing any of that (people say 'ya, for now' i say 'sure why not'), i guess i now belong to a minority. highly educated (doesnt mean that im actually intelligent, mark my word), travelled, and well, has no permanent job nor place that i call my 'own.' im still ready to leave in an hours notice across globe and i dont really care about what i will be doing in a while. in fact it always works out somehow. at this point, i be heading over to england in may, come back, fiddle around for june, be back in banff as collaborative monkey in july, back somewheres but really hoping to catch up and squat with friends either at calgary or vancouver in august, then back to banff for sept-dec.

so still living out of boxes, the only permanent thing i have, or things i have would be my bicycle, greatest housemate on face of the earth (who allows me to stay where i am whenever i come back, i call it 'home'), and where my parents live. everything else is whatever-goes. i often (not even rarely) wonder what is it that i am going to be doing in awhile. with that doctorate title, im supposed to be ambitious, driven, intelligent and blah blah. all i know is that i have it, and that's that. it's a paper.

but it also means that im not likely to be very conventional, as approx. only 2% of the general population will go through it and then we are subjected to entirely different labour market which will also determine one's socio-economical-cultural context. below article blabs about what the young phds in science stream are facing out of school. keep in mind that those who are in arts have a bit more skeptical and nebulous situation (doctorate in music? that kind of thing exists?)http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i04/04a00102.htm

ah all these numbers surveys stats. wonderful. but all i was really musing about is that still, somehow i am not fitting in with the norms, not because i dont particularly want to, but because i just dont. at least this year has been figured out and i suppose that's good enough for now. it's better than good enough. it's still flexible enough and there are ample times to muse and screw around, pursuing all kinds of tomfoolery. not exactly practical i know, but if i was, why would i have gone through graduate school and not stay with urr... i cant generalize the people i have had a personal relationship with, but perhaps the best way to put it may be, 'nice' boys?

in a sense, im relieved that im not so practical. because if you are to be really truly practical to the essense, then one need to be dead. no more consumption, trouble, conflict. dead is dead. pause. the end of this process anyways, what we typically call life. i mean.. most of things that i consider beautiful arent practical: arts, music, spring rain, greyhounds, lone tulip all by itself, cycling through town and stopping at everything, browsing at library or internet, picking out cheese-of-the-week at my cheesemonger, slow-roasting beets from fresh, dirty beets (not canned). especially an out-of-blue-spur-of-well-kinda-moment crossing of puddle to england. practical? nah. exciting unpredictable enjoyable animating intriguing unexpected titillating? yes. whoot. YEEEEAAAAAH. that's right. im going because simply i want to. not because it makes sense career wise, financially, whatever those nonsense people like to slap on their actions for pure justification.

why do i need to justify?i dont! and im not going to haha.i am still legal, havent got a death threat,somedays, ya, things a slower but practical people also get those days (even more so anyways)so why do i care.i am fine stalling out this quarter life crisis thing.

“there is always some frivolity in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, but also stray.”joseph joubert quotes (french essayist and moralist, 1754-1824). im going to trust this guy that if im frivolous, i may be brilliant. prob not. but illusions can also be beautiful.

.... (grabs dirt, throws, splat!) ....

my gene pool (male) wonders if anyone reads this stuff. i have no idea. does it get read?
*disclaimer: i do sound like some big-inflated bobblehead full of hot-airs at this point when i read my own purging. ah.. hopefully theres at least a hope for a bit of schadenfreuden by watching this monkey make a fool out of self. in public, voluntarily. ha ha. gah...
i rant. on regular basis. it's something to behold, as it may as well become my favorite pastime and amusement, simultaneously. efficient. pointless. may be good?